There has been some discussion online recently about how to use keyword match types within RLSA campaigns.

For those who are unfamiliar with RLSA campaigns, these are Google AdWords campaigns which target previous visitors to your site (the RL part - Remarketing Lists) when these people run new search queries (the SA - Search Ads).

For many PPC Managers there is an ingrained aversion to using Broad match keywords. and even for these RLSA campaigns many are reluctant to use anything looser than Broad Match Modified.

This, in my opinion, is an unfounded fear, and you will be doing yourself a disservice if you do not use very generic keywords in Broad Match type for your RLSA campaigns.... and here's why...

We have a client with whom we have been discussing RLSA - remarketing lists for search ads. For those who have not yet tried RLSA, we have found it very effective for some clients - being able to catch previous site visitors (people on our remarketing lists) if they initiate a new search on Google. Let's face it - we know they are, on the one hand, still in the market and on the other, presumably, given the fact that time has passed since their first visit, they are also more motivated to complete their conversion (purchase, sign up, contact request) than they were the first time around.

Are you using your remarketing lists to target search (RLSA) - if you're not, you should be. It can be extremely effective.

But in light of recent site policy changes made by Google don't get caught in the same trap we fell into!

We have a client with a cancer clinic. It's a specific type of cancer that they treat, so our campaigns are highly targeted.

But, following Google's very sensible advice, our RLSA campaigns are not so restrictive - in fact, our RLSA campaigns uses the BMM keyword +cancer - after all, if someone has previously visited our page then we know the type of cancer they are interested in.